Turning Off Automatic Backups in Excel 2007

Carol notes that Excel 2007 creates automatic backup files of every file she creates that is later edited. In earlier versions of Excel, there was an Automatically Create Backup option (which she never used), but she can't find the corresponding setting in Excel 2007 to turn off this feature.

Creating backups is done by default in Excel 2007, and it is done on a workbook by workbook basis. In order to turn it off for a specific workbook you need to follow these steps:

1. Display the Save As dialog box.
2. Click the Tools option in the lower-right corner (near the Save button). Excel displays a drop-down list.
3. Click General Options. Excel displays the General Options dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Make sure the Always Create Backup check box is cleared.
5. Click OK.
6. Continue saving your workbook.

Following these steps affects only the current workbook; other workbooks remain unchanged in their behavior. If you want to change Excel 2007 so that backups aren't saved, by default, then you should try creating a new default workbook for the program. (How this is done is discussed in other ExcelTips. In short, you create a template named Book.xltx and store it in your xlstart folder.)

One thing that should be noted when working with Excel 2007—it is easy to confuse automatic backups with AutoRecover. These are not the same. AutoRecover is a way to save temporary information, between "hard saves," so that you can recover a workbook on which you are working if the power goes out. Automatic backups are copies of your workbook saved whenever you save the workbook itself. Since AutoRecover and automatic backups are two different features of Excel, changing the settings of one feature doesn't affect the other at all.